PRP.

"PRP involves taking your blood and spinning it down to a fraction that is plasma and growth factors and then injecting that either into your skin or your scalp. A lot of people see results in terms of improvement in hair growth, but other people do not. PRP is one of those things that in my opinion got hyped up without really good clinical trials behind it. There's still a lot of unknowns with regards to PRP, whether it be for the scalp or for any sort of skin condition. Some people in the field think that PRP is a complete scam and that it's just been pushed out and hyped up prematurely in the absence of good clinical trials. There are way too many unknowns with regards to it for whether it be hair growth or for the skin. It's gotten a lot of hype but there's so many unknowns behind it."

"The growth factors in that concentrated plasma are thought to stimulate hair follicles and reawaken dormant follicles ultimately allowing for better hair growth. PRP appeals to people because it's more natural and you're not exposing yourself to any drug, just your own body's platelet-rich plasma. Some people's hair loss actually gets worse. Some people's hair does not respond to it and some people do get results. But unfortunately, PRP is not the most standardized protocol. There can be variations in how one provider does it from another, which could impact results that you get. The success is likely influenced by your overall background health. Older adults or adults in poor health may not get the best results because they're just taking from that fraction of their own body. If your PRP is not super robust and rich in growth factors, like maybe when you were 10 or 15 years younger, well, you might not get the best results. PRP injections are really expensive and you have to keep doing them in order to maintain results. To what extent they are superior to just putting topical minoxidil on your head every night, I don't really think we have a good argument in favor of one over the other. It's more a matter of personal preference, but the PRP is going to be a lot more expensive. Like minoxidil, you have to keep using it in order to maintain those results."

"PRP is introduced directly into the scalp after isolating it from your venous blood. Patients who receive PRP into their scalp showed a statistically significant increase in hair growth after six months and after a year of PRP, not only growth but also density and the thickness of the individual hairs. It's once a month for three months and then you need to continue to have maintenance treatments thereafter in order to maintain the results. PRP can have some adverse effects: scalp sensitivity, stinging, burning, itch, and of course when you introduce something into the scalp there's the risk of infection. Not everyone is a candidate for PRP. People who have had a history of cancers, people who have blood disorders or disorders of the platelets would not be ideal for this. It is not safe to do this in pregnant women or in those who are immunocompromised. The quality of the PRP that is isolated is also going to be impacted by your overall health and your age, so maybe younger otherwise healthy people might see better results than older adults. The real downside of PRP is that you have to keep going in for maintenance treatments, and PRP arguably is not inexpensive to maintain."